American ranchers have been battered by multinational corporations flooding the food supply chain with cheap beef imports from third-world countries, much of it ending up in supermarkets without consumers ever realizing it. Now, in a move to protect both consumers from flesh-eating parasites and support mom-and-pop ranchers, the Department of Agriculture warned Mexico on Saturday that the U.S. will cease imports of live animals — including cattle and bison — unless Mexico steps up efforts to combat pests. 

Fox News first reported that U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote a scathing letter to Mexican Secretary of Agriculture Julio Antonio Berdegué Sacristán, threatening to restrict US livestock imports from Mexico if its government does not urgently address the New World Screwworm by the middle of next week. 

"I must inform you that if these issues are not resolved by Wednesday, April 30, USDA will restrict the importation of animal commodities, which consist of live cattle, bison, and equine originating from or transporting to Mexico to protect the interest of the agriculture industry in the United States," Rollins wrote in the letter, obtained by Fox.

She said, "We are now at a critical inflection point in our shared campaign against this pest, and I am very concerned about our collaboration." 

"The outbreak in southern Mexico continues to expand, and every day that passes without full deployment of sterile insect technique (SIT) operations represents a lost opportunity to contain this pest and prevent its spread beyond the Isthmus of Tehuantepecm," Rollins noted.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the New World Screwworm targets open wounds in warm-blooded animals, including birds, deer, and humans, laying hundreds of eggs that hatch into flesh-eating maggots. 

Rollins' message is very clear: Move quickly on combating the screwworm fly by:

• Secure a one-year or indefinite operational clearance for Dynamic Aviation.

• Waive import duties for NWS-related materials.

• Appoint a high-level contact to resolve bureaucratic obstacles.

... or face trade restrictions on live cattle, bison, and equine entering the U.S. 

Unbeknownst to consumers, the U.S. imported 3.7 billion pounds of beef in 2023, accounting for 15% of the total U.S. beef consumption. This volume increased to record highs due to a collapsing U.S. cattle herd, pushing supermarket prices to new highs. 

At the start of the year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's annual Cattle Inventory report revealed that the nation's cattle supply had fallen to a 73-year low, totaling about 86.6 million head.

At the supermarket, USDA data from the end of March showed the average price for a pound of ground beef reached yet another record high of $5.79.

Years of multinationals flooding America with cheap beef imports from third-world countries have financially wrecked mom-and-pop ranchers. This creates a serious national security threat, as foreign nations and multinational corporations have increasingly gained control over critical segments of the U.S. food supply chain. For a country to thrive, control of the food supply should remain with local ranchers and farmers, rather than distant megacorporations with little interest in the community. 

"For decades, America outsourced its food production under the illusion of efficiency. Now a single screwworm threat exposes how fragile and foolish that model really is. If you don't control your own cattle, you don't control your own future—and that's exactly where we are," clean beef think tank Beef Initiative wrote in a statement.

ZeroHedge, in collaboration with the Beef Initiative, is committed to supporting the "Make America Healthy Again" movement by restoring control of the food supply chain—currently dominated by corrupt multinational corporations within the processed foods industrial complex—to local, family-owned ranchers and farmers.

We're calling this effort "Rancher-Direct Clean Food"...

Consumers don't have to worry about New World Screwworm if they purchase directly from mom-and-pop ranchers based in the United States. 

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